Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

The nub of the issue is that it is the objective of the Government to reduce our overall debt burden. We have employed every mechanism available to us at this point. It is important to note - a point which is glossed over and is not alluded to by anybody on the Opposition benches - that the savings the State will incur by virtue of the renegotiation of the interest rate of our overall loan package amounts to €10 billion, which is not insignificant. It would be nice, perhaps occasionally, if Members of the Opposition would allude to any of the Government's successes on behalf of this country. Perhaps I am a little fanciful in believing that could ever happen.

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